Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the purported founders of communism, established in the 19th century a government paradigm that transformed Europe and other regions in the eastern hemisphere, adding to an already expansive repertoire of political ideologies. And the seemingly farfetched assertion that communism could someday take control of America seems, quite simply, unfathomable. But is it really that improbable, or furthermore, has it already ensnared certain sectors of society?

To look at the streets of Reykjavik, Iceland, an alien would be hard-pressed to see any aftereffects of the banking crisis that nearly bankrupted the country in 2008. The capitol of the 40,000-square-mile island just below the Arctic Circle between Greenland and the United Kingdom is the country's largest city where nearly two-thirds of the island's 320,000 inhabitants reside. Unemployment is down, economic growth is positive, and its streets are calm.

The shadowy but controversial National Security Agency (NSA) — despite U.S. law and constitutional protections — has collected most of the e-mails sent and received by Americans, agency whistleblower William Binney explained during an explosive TV interview. Phone calls and other forms of electronic communications are also routinely targeted.

By a vote of 64-34 the Alabama House of Representatives Thursday passed a slate of alterations to HB 56, the state’s anti-illegal immigration bill. The original version of the measure passed last year was described as “one of the toughest in the nation.” Unfortunately, it was just that harshness that forced the state legislature to make changes to the language so as to increase the state’s Attorney General’s ability to defend it in court against the various legal challenges that have been filed against it.

A conservative legal group has sued the federal Homeland Security Department because it refuses to release documents relating to the arrest and possible deportation of Onyango Obama, the president’s illegal-alien uncle collared for drunk driving last August in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Former Neighborhood Watch captain George Zimmerman, who fatally shot Trayvon Martin in what he said was self-defense, was released from a Florida county jail on $150,000 bail around midnight on Sunday. In fear for his safety, Zimmerman was transferred to an undisclosed location to await trial for a charge of second-degree murder.

A recently released United Nations report outlines the global body’s plan to foist a centrally planned “green” world order on all of humanity, making every level of government subservient to its “sustainable development” agenda. The upcoming Rio+20 sustainability conference in Brazil — held two decades after the first “Earth Summit” adopted Agenda 21 — will be used to solidify the foundation of the emerging planetary control system.

Critics of the establishment media and of prosecutors found new ammunition after a photograph of Trayvon Martin’s shooter George Zimmerman — taken just minutes after the now-infamous Florida shooting — showed the back of his head bloodied as a result of injuries he said were sustained during an attack.

Charles Colson, President Nixon’s notorious “hatchet man,” who spent time in prison in the wake of the Watergate scandal before founding an international ministry and becoming an esteemed Christian leader, has died at age 80. Colson became ill March 30 while leading a meeting of Christian leaders at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview in Lansdowne, Virginia. The following morning he had surgery to remove a pool of clotted blood from the surface of his brain, and while doctors were initially optimistic about his recovery, his condition became grave and he died April 21 surrounded by his family.

The United Nations plans to use its upcoming UN Conference on “Sustainable Development” (UN CSD or Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro to amass a vast array of unprecedented new powers and literally re-shape civilization, the global economy, and even peoples’ thoughts, according to official documents. All of it will be done in the name of transitioning toward a so-called “green economy.”